Businesses can apply protection to each device and the data it holds, in a way that is appropriate to the device user’s role, and risk profile, which also makes it easier for organizations to lock down and manage the complete mobile security cycle.

Although the FBI no longer needs to force Apple to unlock an iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino terrorists, the debate must continue. Strong encryption that cannot be exploited by external or internal actors is a must for any organization.

End-to-end encryption does not solve the problem, despite the common perception that it is the holy grail of instant-messaging security. It is necessary that service providers shift their attention toward non-traditional key-derivation mechanisms to close the loophole.

Besides the usual precautions, encryption can put a huge dent in the problem by making stored information unintelligible to intruders. Self-encrypting drives further help by minimizing the performance impact by offloading encryption to specialized hardware and taking humans out of the picture.

Encrypted network traffic improves confidentiality and message integrity, but it also puts organizations at risk. This is because hackers can leverage encryption to conceal their exploits from security devices that do not inspect SSL traffic. Attackers are wising up and taking advantage of this gap in corporate defenses.

The newly released Encrypt the Web report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) illustrates that even large, well-known enterprises are susceptible to lapses in properly securing network communications.

EMC's RSA security unit sent an advisory to their developer customers warning against use of a toolkit that employs an NIST encryption algorithm by default that is suspected to have been “backdoored” by the NSA.

Experts warn that within the next several years, the RSA public key cryptography system could even potentially become obsolete. If that is the case, how will enterprises be able to ensure secure remote access in the near-future?

Employers can be diligent in installing encryption protection software on the devices their employees use, but what happens if the password is compromised? Whenever the password is known, the laptop, smartphone or tablet is at no less security risk with encryption as it is without.